Corzine warns Bush of legal action on kids' health care

Gov. Jon Corzine today threatened to "pursue legal action'' against the Bush Administration rather than follow new rules and exclude kids whose working poor families would earn too much to participate in the government-sponsored FamilyCare health insurance program.

In a strident letter mailed to the White House today, Corzine called the rules "unreasonable'' because they would make new enrollees wait a year to apply, and limit the program to children in the lowest rungs of poverty. He asked Bush to reconsider his stance, and said New Jersey will "vigorously continue" to enroll all children in FamilyCare who are eligible under the program's current standards.

"The practical effect of the new policy would be that thousands of innocent children will lose or be denied health insurance coverage and will be forced to join the growing ranks of the uninsured,'' Corzine wrote. "Please also know that I am prepared, if necessary, to pursue legal action to further the goal of protecting our most vulnerable children.''

The letter comes in response to new enrollment rules - issued to states Aug. 17 by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services - governing the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), which provides federal subsidies to state-run programs that offer health coverage to working families not covered by their employers and unable to afford private policies.

New Jersey currently has permission to enroll children from a family of four whose annual income is as high as $72,274, because state officials have successfully argued the cost of living in the state is very high. The new rules would require states to prove that 95 percent of children from the lowest income levels -- for example, a family of four earning no more than $41,300 -- were enrolled before accepting children from any higher income brackets.

Corzine today said the new rules "would have the effect of denying health care coverage to as many as 10,000 children in New Jersey."

The changes came soon after both chambers of Congress passed bills that would dramatically increase funding for SCHIP. But the Bush Administration opposes both measures, and Bush has threatened to veto any expansion of the $5 billion-a-year program.